1. What do you know/ understand best about Project Based Learning? What do you
understand least well?
I understand best that Project Based Learning must hold “real world” application. If what
students are learning holds value for their lives in the future then their involvement will be more
meaningful. It is therefore the responsibility of educators to create learning opportunities where
students can develop the necessary skills for life. Developing genuine, authentic lessons that
build student knowledge, allow for repetitive practice, permit revisions, and require professional
product development are all required for success in PBLs.
What I am still learning with PBL’s is how to best set-up the pedagogical sequence so
that each lesson builds on the next to create the culminating activity. It isn’t that I don’t
understand how to go about this process, but more that the process is time consuming and
involves tremendous thinking. When looking at the scope of the school year and what content
must be taught in association with given standards it can be very overwhelming figuring out how
to logically implement all the requirements.
2. What did you expect to learn in this course? What did you actually learn? More, less,
and why?
To be honest I didn’t know what to expect I would learn in this course. I was simply hopeful
that what I learned in this course would be of use in my teaching and also push me to grow in my
abilities to design instruction. I am very happy to say that I find this course very applicable to my
teaching.
What I actually learned was the ins-and-outs in creating an effective PBL. I quickly found that
PBL’s are about mastering skills and standards. They require a “team” component that requires
students to collaborate with one another and build an atmosphere that accepts peer, self, and
teacher assessment for the sake of personal growth. At the foundational level PBLs must be
driven by an essential question that guides student creativity with large themes that serve as
protective barriers in the exploration process. I also found that PBLs support the idea of setting
high expectations and scaffolding lessons to help students achieve high standards for success.
3. What will you do with what you have learned?
I have already taken my PBL that I created and presented it to my Professional Learning
Community (PLC). My hope is that I am able to implement this unit this upcoming fall when
teaching Of Mice and Men. Moreover, my goal is to pass along many of the resources I have
been exposed to in this course to the curriculum design team. There are already so many PBLs in
existence that there is no point in recreating the wheel, so knowing where to find well-developed
and effective PBLs and supporting resources is huge. I’m hoping in the months to come I am
able to build more PBL’s that center on the core literature taught each year in 9th grade English.
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